This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Earlier this week, the NFL player Damar Hamlin’s heart stopped on the field after a violent collision with another player; a mountain climber died after an avalanche on Britain’s highest mountain; and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in
My parents have told me they are considering using equity release to access some of the cash tied up in their home, and I have some concerns.
My first issue is that they are not particularly good with money. Some years ago, they ran into trouble with their previous interest-only mortgage as they didn’t have the funds to repay it when the term ended.
In the end they bought a much cheaper house, selling their previous place and buying outright
After a relaxing day at the Jersey Shore last July, Jessica Reeder and her son and daughter headed back home to Philadelphia. As they crested a bridge from New Jersey into Pennsylvania, they were greeted with a hazy, yellow-gray sky. It reminded Reeder of the smoky skies she saw growing up in Southern California on days when fires burned in the dry canyons.
Smelling smoke and worried about her asthma and her kids, Reeder flipped the switch to recirculate the
PSZCZYNA, Poland — It was shortly before 11 p.m. when Izabela Sajbor realized the doctors were prepared to let her die.
Her doctor had already told her that her fetus had severe abnormalities and would almost certainly die in the womb. If it made it to term, life expectancy was a year, at most. At 22 weeks pregnant, Ms. Sajbor had been admitted to a hospital after her water broke prematurely.
She knew that there was a short window to
Twenty-seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic, our defenses against the coronavirus seem at once stronger and more penetrable than ever. A growing majority of the U.S. population now has some immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, whether from vaccination, past infection, or both. However, staggeringly infectious members of the Omicron family have demonstrated an ability to evade some of those protections. Since April, they have led to a quadrupling of daily coronavirus cases; the U.S.
For much of the past year, Americans have guided their behavior using a kind of cognitive triangulation. First, we’ve judged the risks of a coronavirus infection; second, we’ve assessed our willingness to accept those risks; and third, we’ve mulled the value, or perhaps the necessity, of our proposed activities. You may be willing to risk an encounter with the virus to do your job, or to attend your daughter’s graduation, but a trip to the dentist? Maybe not.
The last
